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Bill is a longstanding member of the Balloon Federation of America, Granite State Balloon Association, the Great Eastern Ballooning Association and a frequent guest speaker at safety seminars throughout the Southeast. He is a FAA certified commercial balloon pilot and is re-certified every 24 months and has logged over 2500 hours of flight time. The aircraft are inspected and certified as airworthy every 100 hours or annually, whichever comes first. |
Bill
and Trish Whidden have been professionally ballooning
since the early 80's. They began flying in Tallahassee, FL and operated a ride
operation there for 12 years before moving back to Central Florida in
1991. Bill and Trish have been consultants to balloon festival
organizers since 1983 and began the Tallahassee Springtime Balloon
Festival as well as many others, even as far away as New Zealand. Bill serves as a “Balloonmeister “
for many events and has served in that role for over 75 events across
the country. Having flown in most of
the contiguous lower 48 states, they have also attended ballooning events in
France, Beligum, Germany, Austria, Portugal, Ireland, New Zealand and
Canada. Among some of their more exciting and memorable flights is a
flight into the depths of Niagara Falls in front of the “Horseshoe,”
and winter flying high in the Austrian Alps.